Zarin gave the new info some thought. He knew that Warrior, Rogue, and Mage were supposed to be the 3 Basic Classes one could start with. But each class had some rare variations of them, especially the mage class, but each was harder to earn than the standard Basic Classes.
The shaman was a variation of the Mage Class, as they both could use Spell-Like abilities but had access to different Skills. In addition, shamans could communicate with Spirits and summon them to fight with them or use them instead of MP to use their Skills.
"How did you become one? I thought Dwarves couldn't cast any spells."
"Full Dwarves can't, but I am half one. Also, I am not that powerful or knowledgeable about what Shamans can do. Still, in my travels, I picked up a trick or two. "
Zarin had learned some basic information about dwarves from discussions with Eddie and stories he read in the Journal. Dwarves were creatures made to be master craftsmen and miners but could not become Arcane Arts practitioners. The reason behind that was supposed to be because of Fjyrik, the First Dwarf.
Fjyrik was the son of Setgar, the King of the Stone Giants back then. His mother had an unknown origin, but the only known about her was that she was a human. Fjyrik was an average half-stone giant, but he had an encounter that changed everything.
On one of its explorations in an underground cave, he had found a gem of unknown origin and value. Stone Giants were creatures that loved collecting all kinds of gemstones and metals, with Fjyrik not being any less interested in those.
But Fjyrik didn't know that what he thought was a standard gem was actually the egg of a creature from the Ancient Times. The egg was of a creature of great power, one of the leading curators at creating the realm that Zarin was currently at.
The egg couldn't get hatched fully if it didn't consume enough gems. But as it was deep in the earth and consumed every gem around it, it couldn't hatch itself. Fjyrik noticed that strange fact, and after some serious thinking, he kept feeding it to see what would happen.
Of course, he didn't know the origin of the egg until it got hatched. When it did, there wasn't a baby but a full-grown being larger than Setgar, who was also the most enormous giant there was. The form of the being wasn't a specific one and kept changing every second that passed.
The creature's appearance amazed Fjyrik enough to not notice that the creature affected him. Half Stone Giants, like other races, could also use Arcane Arts to help themselves. However, they primarily focused on manipulating the earth with it. Fjyrik was a Master Enchanter back then, and like most Master Enchanters, he was also a powerful Mage.
The newborn creature consumed Fjyrik's mana and even consumed Fjyrik's Mana Pool. Fjyrik didn't notice until it was too late. His body also changed, becoming shorter than a human but broader. His skin from dark grey became more human-like but still was dark just less grey.
By the time Fjyrik noticed, it was too late, as the being had finished consuming everything and then teleported away. So Fjyrik got exiled from his people; even if he was the son of the King, he was not even partially a Stone Giant anymore.
Fjyrik traveled for a long time to find a place of his and a new direction for his life. Finally, after decades of traveling, he encountered the being he had helped to be born once more. After all that time, the being had grown wiser and had more control of its abilities.
Since a long time had passed, the being couldn't turn him back to what he was, but it could create another one like him- a wife. At that point, a new race had joined the realm, which, with the knowledge of the metals and gems of Stone Giants, became to create the best craftsmen in the world.
Still, because of Fjyrik's loss of his mana pool, every dwarf born afterward had no mana pool and couldn't create one. So even if creating enchantments for a non-mage was impossible back then, they just made tools to help them develop enchantments instead. Those tools were secrets of the race, and few non-dwarves had access to them even after all that time.
"When do you think we should move? You need to take care of your wounds first. "
"Give me an hour, and we should be ok. In the meantime, maybe you can go get the mana battery. "
Eddie gave him a signal for Zarin to follow him as they moved towards Eddie's room. Eddie extended his hand forward with an open palm as they entered the room. He opened his mouth to say something as he did that, but no noise came out of his mouth.
As Eddie finished his small silent chant, a small black hole appeared in front of him. Eddie put his extended hand in it and pulled a long black wooden staff out of it.
The staff was taller than Eddie, but it wouldn't be taller than an average adult human. At the top of the staff, there was a skull of some kind of animal, with a rune carved on its forehead. There was a small gem in the middle of the rune that wouldn't be wider than Zarin's thumb.
Eddie continued his way toward the closet and brought out the chest, which Zarin had found out not that long ago. Eddie didn't touch the chest but put the staff through one of the handles it had at its sides and dragged it outside. Then Eddie used the staff's butt to tap the top of the chest as he once more chanted something without Zarin hearing anything.
After that, some of the runes around the chest let out a bit of blue light, then they disappeared. Then Eddie opened the chest without trying to hide what was inside it.
"What are those for?"
Zarin didn't need to make that question, but he considered it to be a suitable one.
Eddie started explaining what was in it, but Zarin didn't need to hear it as he had his System.
In total, there were ten items in it, but only two drew the attention of Zarin.
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RING OF INVISIBILITY
Description: When the item is active, the user is unseen and undetectable by normal means of detection. Magical detection still has the chance of success.
Uses: 1/day
Duration: 10 minutes
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NECKLACE OF COMFORT
Description: When the item is active, the user's HP Regeneration increases by 500% while not in combat or 200% in combat mode.
Uses: 3/day
Duration: 1 minute
Cooldown: 1 hour
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Those two items were the only ones that Zarin thought he could currently use, and luckily Eddie let him choose two, so he picked them to get.
"Keep in mind that I lent them to you, so better not lose them or sell them."
Zarin hadn't even considered selling them, and the last thing he wanted to happen was to lose them. They were incredible artifacts in his eyes that, if used correctly, could make things much more manageable.
"Get this too. Use it to remove the battery from the bonds of the main enhancement."
Eddie had what looked like a regular knife in his hand, but when Eddie looked at it and saw its description panel, he knew it wasn't as simple as it looked.
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????? ?? ???? ??????????
Description: ? ???? ???? ?? ?????????? ?????
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This was the first time Zarin saw question marks instead of actual words. Until now, either he got something or nothing.
"Take good care of it. Just touch with the blade's tip the runes outside the battery, and the rest will be handled by the tool itself."
Zarin nodded, and after wearing the ring and the necklace, he left with the knife held in his left hand. He didn't activate the call as he wanted to save it, but he used his [Stealth] as he could feel that he was close to passing his bottleneck.
It didn't take him long to reach the kitchen, and there were no accidents this time.
As he entered the room, he didn't work on removing the battery right away. Instead, he left the knife at a counter next to the door, and he tried the same thing he did last time.
Once more, he could feel this strange energy going through his body, but this time it felt different. It didn't give him an uncomfortable feeling, but before, the flow looked much slower than it was now.
He opened his Status to check if there was any change, but unfortunately, there wasn't anything different once more.
But not long after he opened his Status, a notification panel appeared.
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WEEKLY SPECIAL MANA TRAINING COMPLETED
[Mana Regeneration] reached level 2.
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